KNBR conversation: Greg Roman

Published 3:15 pm, Saturday, September 27, 2014

Murphy: Let’s talk about the offense — the five-wide formation you went with (against Arizona). Could you illuminate us on the details of that? How long has that set been in your playbook? Have you ever used it before?

Roman: Well yeah, it’s been in our playbook from Day 1, really. Our personnel situation this week just felt like it was a good week to use it. It’s something we hadn’t shown, and I liked how it looked in practice. But it’s something that we’ve always had.

Murphy: It seemed like you gave up some of Frank Gore to get extra wide receivers on the field. How did you evaluate that when you looked at the film, as far as not getting Frank the ball as much but still having a couple of 80-yard TD drives?

Roman: Yeah, it was really good execution. And yeah, you do give up something, but you gain something as well.

Murphy: (Arizona coach) Bruce Arians said they put a spy on (Colin Kaepernick) in the third quarter and changed the way they covered you guys a little bit. When you look back, did they make the adjustments that stopped you guys in the second half?

Roman: No, not really. They just kept doing the same stuff. They hit us with a couple of blitzes, but things we had seen them do in the past. Really, they did nothing new that we hadn’t seen. They really started pressuring us heavily in the first half, with all-out blitzes, and we hit one to Stevie (Johnson) for a good gain. Then they backed off, and they just were pretty much max-pressuring us there in a lot of the second half.

Murphy: Obviously things are going great in the first half, outscoring teams 59-16, but then in the second half you’ve been outscored 52-3. It’s bad for your defense and it’s bad for your offense. When you look at yourself and your game plan and your personnel, to what would you attribute your failures in the second half so far?

Roman: It really comes down to negative production in the second half, and penalties have really been the crux of it over the first couple of games. We’re going into the fourth week of the season, and it’s something we’ve got to put an end to.

Murphy: Going into Sunday’s game with the Eagles, they are not a great defense statistically — they’ve given up 386 yards and 26 points per game, both among the bottom of the league. Is this a chance for your offense to really get back on your feet and gash them?

Roman: They’re a very good team. They’ve got some really good personnel on defense. I think they play a style that kind of matches up with their offense. It’s something where we’ve just got to take care of our business. We have a lot of respect for them, but it’s all about us taking care of our business, and the score will take care of itself.